While on the journey, Washington heard that the fort had fallen to the French, but continued toward the Monongahela. On May 24, the regiment arrived in a marshy area called the Great Meadows, which Washington thought would be “a charming field for an encounter.” He set up a temporary encampment.

On May 27, hearing French soldiers had been spotted 7 miles away, Washington set out with 40 men to find them. Along the way, they met a Seneca chief named Tanacharison, or the Half King, whose scouts helped Washington find them.

The Virginians caught the French by surprise, killing 10 men, including the commander of the party, Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville. 21 men were taken prisoner, but one man escaped for Fort Duquesne. The site of this skirmish became known as Jumonville Glen.

Washington decided it had become necessary to fortify the camp on the Great Meadows; over five days at the end of May and the beginning of June, he and his men built a circular fort which he named Fort Necessity.

Reinforcements and supplies arrived on June 9th, putting 293 men under Washington’s command; about 100 British solders from South Carolina arrived several days later. Washington also unsuccessfully attempted to recruit the Seneca to help, then began to work on building a road north from Fort Necessity to a settlement called Gist’s Plantation. However, on July 1st, reports came in that French and Indians had assembled at Fort Duquesne and were marching south, and Washington withdrew to Fort Necessity.

Two days later, July 3, 1754, 600 French and 100 Native Americans arrived, taking up positions in the woods surrounding the meadow and the fort, and what came to be known as the Battle of the Great Meadows began. The fighting lasted throughout that rainy day, with both sides suffering fairly heavy losses but the British suffering more. At about 8:00 P.M., French Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, Jumonville’s brother, called for a truce and negotiated surrender terms with Washington.

Under terms of the surrender, the next morning, both sides left, with the British heading for Wills Creek and the French going back to Fort Duquesne, burning down and destroying Fort Necessity before they left.

Braddock’s Grave

In 1755, Major General Edward Braddock, commander in chief of British forces in North America, launched what was to be a major offensive against the French, including simultaneous attacks on major French strongholds. Braddock chose to personally lead an attack on Fort Duquesne, accompanied by 2,400 men, including both British soldiers and Colonial militia. George Washington volunteered to serve as Braddock’s aide.

The army traveled along the road Washington had earlier helped to build, having to widen it to accommodate the large amount of men and equipment. Progress was slow, and the army was finally split in two.

On July 9, 1755, the first group crossed the Monongahela River near Fort Duquesne and was suddenly ambushed by the French. The advance group fell back while the second group continued forward, and in all the confusion, 900 men out of 1,400 ended up dead before the British officially began their retreat.

General Braddock had been seriously wounded, and he died of his wounds on July 13th, while the British were camped near the former site of Fort Necessity. He was buried in the road the next day while the soldiers obliterated any trace of it, afraid of being followed and slaughtered by Native Americans.

The road, which came to be known as Braddock Road, remained a major route through the area both before and after American independence. In 1804, workmen discovered what were apparently Braddock’s remains, which were reburied alongside the road. In 1913, the grave was marked by a monument.

Around 1828, next to the former site of Fort Necessity, the Mount Washington Tavern opened, one of many such establishments along the National Road, providing food, drink, and beds to stagecoach travelers and others. Business declined beginning in the mid-1850s once the railroads replaced stagecoach travel in the area, however, and the tavern saw only occasional use into the 1900s. It has since been restored somewhat and now houses exhibits on the building of the National Road and early 1800s tavern life.

Reconstructing the Fort

The original Fort Necessity had been built quickly with no plans and then burned down soon afterward, and so no one really knew exactly what it looked like. Some depressions and ridges marked the general area, and for years, it was thought that these represented the dimensions of the fort. After Fort Necessity was officially named a national battlefield in 1931, some archaeologicalexcavation seemed to support this theory, and the fort was reconstructed as a diamond-shaped structure.

Further evidence, though, proved that the fort was actually smaller and circular, and it was re-reconstructed to reflect this in the mid-1950s. Later reconstructions, every 10 years or so, were necessary to replace wood that had rotted due to the marshy conditions in the meadow. In 1997-98, the fort was rebuilt with a foundation made of plastic and only the above-ground portions made of wood in an attempt to slow down the cycle.

Visiting

The main Fort Necessity National Battlefield site is 11 miles east of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on U.S. Highway 40, the numbered route into which the National Road was incorporated. The nearest large city is Pittsburgh, which is about 60 miles away, either via U.S. 40 to Pennsylvania state route 51 or U.S. 40 to the Mon-Fayette Expressway (Pennsylvania state route 43).

Braddock’s grave is about a mile and a half west of the battlefield along U.S. 40. The Jumonville Glen site is 4 miles west on U.S. 40, then 3 miles south on Jumonville Road.